A Snowball in Hell
by QueenDromeda
Summary: Miraculously alive after Voldemort's attack, Lily Potter is left to scheme for the Dark Lord's downfall after Dumbledore informs her about little things called horcruxes. With help from the un-estranged Black heir and a somewhat senile headmaster, the trio must save the world without letting the world know that it needs saving. And that's easier said then done. - Dark AU


It was dark, both figuratively and literally. She couldn't explain the heavy feeling of anxiousness that lay over her when she woke up on October 31st, nor could she understand her husbands exuberant mood. How could he be so happy when everything was going to go wrong in someway?

She generally tried to ignore the foreboding that settled underneath her skin, but as light faded from the sky, she could hardly control the bounce of her leg. Her husband had noticed, he'd have to be blind not too, but seemed to understand her silence; why make things worse than they were?

Then, when they were sitting on the couch with their young baby, the worst came true. A shockwave flooded through the house, indicating someone entering through the wards. Her husband, sweet, sweet James, lept up and, in one of the rashest moves he'd ever made, looked outside.

"It's him! Take Harry and run!" The words were met with silence.

She was numb, but somehow her feet still found the time to move up the stairs into Harry's nursery. Pressing her baby against her shoulder she swung the emergency bag on, getting ready to apparate away.

Nothing happened.

There was a loud _BANG _from down stairs, probably Voldemort entering the house, and her muttered, "Shit," was all too loud for the house.

Letting the bag fall to the floor, she lifted Harry up, settling him gently into his crib trying to ignore the way his eyes dug into hers. Fingering her wand, she straightened and focused all her concentration on the door, trying to ignore the muffled voices from downstairs, because god forbid she listen to James's last words.

Closing her eyes, she let out a breath and then another one, and another before she felt positive in her ability to bar entrance. Curses and charms flew from her lips at lightning speed, her wand illuminating the dark room.

For a moment, in midst of her casting, time seemed to slow enough for her ears to focus on Voldemort's high, clear, terrible voice, and the words that came from him in unremorseful glee, "Avada Kedavra."

She could imagine the green light hitting her James square in the chest, and him falling, quietly and gently, like snow. Lowering her wand she returned her attention to the babe in the cot, who was watching the whole ordeal in some sort of childish wonder, unaware that the bright lights his mummy created were going to do very little in the end, to help him.

Licking her lips, she ignored the tears that were beginning to slip from her eyes. Instead, she got down on her knees and whispered, "Harry be brave, be strong."

She could hear the Dark Lord walking slowly, walking leisurely, up the stairs now, sure that there was no way for his targets to get away, sure in his ability to kill them both. Harry was looking at her intently again, staring at her with green eyes. She gave a dry sob. He was so young, so innocent.

Blinking rapidly, she continued, "Mama loves you."

The room shook.

The doors wards were being tested, and already they were cracking under the strain put on them by Voldemort.

"Dada," Her voice caught, and she began to stand up, ironing her will for what would come, "Dada loved you."

With an unprecedented crash the nursery's door was blown off of it's hinges, exposing the hallway, and the monster the hallway held. With an air of certainty, Voldemort strode into the room, his tall figure swathed in dark robes. A shaking breath escaped her, and with it her last hope of living.

Holding his wand in his long, sickly white fingers, looking at her in interest, he spoke, his voice lowering the temperature in the room, tenfold, "Stand aside you foolish girl, for you need not die. It is your son I want, not you."

"No! Please!" Tears began to spill down her cheeks, as she looked at him, "Not Harry, please not Harry!"

Lifting his wand slightly, he offered once again, "Stand aside."

Shaking, she continued to beg, not even thinking about accepting the madman's requests, "Not Harry, please no. Take me, kill me instead-"

"This is my last warning."

Still, she continued to beg, "Not Harry! Please, have mercy. Not Harry! Please, I'll do anything-"

Her words were cut off when the red flash of a stunner hit her, crumpling her body to the ground. Voldemort, looked at her in disgust, as if her pleads had personally offended him. A sneer, already formed on his lips, he muttered the words she wanted to hear the least directed at her child, "Avada Kedavra."

With a flash of unnaturally green light, the spell hit Harry, and for a moment she felt her heart stop. Then something strange happened. The spell, the only spell that's impossible to block, bounced off of her baby, and rebounded back towards it's caster.

A second passed, then two, when the room was filled with an unearthly scream of rage. Harry cried out, but as the nursery was still bathed in green, she had no idea why. A blast of power rammed over the room, and within moments darkness was all Lily Potter knew.


End file.
